Spending four days last week without power was an interesting experience, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Although we didn’t have power or hot water, we had access to many conveniences. We were able to cook on our stovetop, as we have a gas stove. We were able to recharge our laptops for brief periods, as we purchased a car-based charger. We had heat, as we had turned our fireplace on before the power went out. However, we were without hot water, and we only had a fully lit house during daylight hours.
While I didn’t enjoy missing these amenities, the outage gave us a chance to spend more family time. Instead of Tapas Monday, we had a candlelight dinner with the kids. After dinner, our evenings were spent playing board games and card games. (As a side note, trying to determine if a card is blue or green in Uno is quite hard via candlelight.) Of course, when the power returned on Wednesday afternoon, we were excited to have normalcy back. To celebrate its return, I made a pumpkin cake for everyone and scheduled a dinner of Tapas Wednesday for my husband and me.
A simple tapas dinner seemed the best plan, especially with a slice of pumpkin cake as the finale. With vegetables from our weekend trip to the farm stand that withstood the power outage nicely, I had the basis for different dishes: cheesy poblano peppers and sweet potato latkes. Not only did my husband and I enjoy the latkes, but so did our daughter. This recipe made quite a few, and she was able to sample a few as a leftover a couple nights later. Although she usually prefers a white potato to a sweet potato, she enjoyed the latkes, even asking for seconds.
- 2 sweet potatoes, peeled
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 eggs, whisked
- salt & pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Shred sweet potatoes using a coarse setting.
- In a large bowl, combine shredded potato, flour, and eggs.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
- Scoop a heaping tablespoon of potato mixture, and form into a patty using your hands.
- Place in frying pan, repeat with remaining mixture, until your pan is full but not crowded (about 6 latkes).
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown.*
- Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, and transfer to a serving plate.
- Repeat forming and cooking latkes until all mixture is used.
- Serve immediately with sour cream or ketchup.
- *Flip carefully, as these latkes can fall apart easily. Also, resist checking too often, as that will interfere will a golden crust forming.
